“There is very little to go on in Sri Lanka,” says Kathir*, who will board a flight to Dubai later this month for an electrical maintenance job, leaving behind his parents, wife and two children. “There is no other option,” says Kathir, 35, who paid SLR 4,00,000 (about ₹1,11,500) to an agent to join the list of workers seeking employment abroad.
A few weeks after their planned departure, Sri Lanka Vote to elect a new presidentCitizens will have a say in the situation for the first time since a painful economic collapse in 2022, when they took to the streets amid huge shortages and prolonged power cuts. The massive uprising ousted former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country and resigned.
Kathir sadly asks, “What difference does it make who comes to power when our situation remains the same?” Despite working two jobs as an electrician and an autorickshaw driver, he has difficulty supporting his family in Kandy’s central district, which is crowded with tourists.
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The government is aiming to attract more visitors so that the dollars they bring in can replenish its coffers, which ran out of cash two years ago. In addition, it is hoping to increase its foreign exchange earnings from exports and remittances from workers – $5.9 billion in 2023 – who have moved out. Data published by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment shows that about 75,000 workers have left the country in the first quarter of 2024, while about 6 lakh people have left the country during the previous two years.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who replaced Mr. Gotabaya, is seeking a mandate to push forward his government’s economic reform program. He repeatedly reminds voters that fuel queues have disappeared, there are no gas shortages, and the country is on the road to recovery with a nearly $3 billion International Monetary Fund package he signed. He takes credit for restoring stability. Meanwhile, thousands of people like Kathir are leaving the country to escape uncertainty.
suffer
Families like hers, who live in Sri Lanka’s hilly towns, may be relatively better off than those working and living on tea plantations, according to Ponniya Logeswari of the Kandy-based Human Development Association, a non-profit organisation that works in plantations and rural areas. “Their plight is terrible,” she says.
An election rally of the opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB or United People’s Force) held recently in Digana, near Kandy. | Photo credit: Meera Srinivasan
Kandy is one of the three districts in Sri Lanka’s beautiful Central Province, which is home to a significant population of Malaiyaha (Hill Tracts) Tamils besides Sinhalese and Muslims. Malaiyaha TamilThose whose ancestors were brought by the British two centuries ago to work on plantations are among the poorest people in Sri Lanka.
About 1.5 lakh workers, mostly women, from this multi-million community work in tea and rubber estates in central and southern Sri Lanka. The Wickremesinghe administration had promised to raise their daily wages to SLR 1,700 (around ₹475). After strong opposition to the wage hike, some companies recently reluctantly agreed to the rate, but they remain tied to targets that estate workers say are nearly impossible to meet. If proper wages do not reach the workers, their only savings for the future were affected when the government decided to restructure its domestic debt by reorganizing the pension fund.
“The promise of higher wages is a joke because almost no one gets that much,” says Ms. Logeswari. Criticising the companies for “exploiting” the workers, she also blames the community’s politicians for adopting a “handout culture” that ignores people’s rights.
Fight for rights
While Sri Lankan voters will directly elect their president on September 21, political parties in parliament are pledging support for their preferred candidate in parliamentary elections due soon, based on past alliances and future coalition prospects. After struggling for citizenship until 2003, members of the Malaiyaha Tamil community – a 1948 law left them stateless – have been demanding decent housing and land rights for decades.
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“About 68% of the people still live in colonial-era line rooms and do not own even a small piece of land. Instead of addressing the persistent discrimination, our politicians want to increase their loyalty by dividing the people into pieces,” Ms Logeswari angrily said.
Decades of neglect have left this community more vulnerable than other Sri Lankan communities, while the island nation has suffered its worst economic downturn since independence. Malaiyaha Tamils living in these areas feel many of its effects, such as job losses, falling incomes and malnutrition, more acutely. The crisis and its lasting consequences are also taking a serious toll on children’s education in these areas, according to Kanchandevi Kirubakar, a member of the Ceylon Teachers Union. Parents are increasingly unable to afford school transport, stationery or electricity due to the high costs. Families are being forced to skip meals. “If Covid has dealt a blow to schooling in remote areas where online classes are impossible, the crisis has worsened their situation,” she says.
Voting pledges
Addressing an election rally at a ground in nearby Digana town last weekend, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, who is also contesting for the presidency, stressed the need for digital assistance and improvement in technology in education and governance.
“You may ask how we can afford all this. We will cut all unnecessary government spending, punish thieves and eliminate corruption,” he said loudly as supporters cheered.
Though Mr. Premadasa’s speech focused largely on national issues, voters, especially in the hilly areas, make their decision based on their immediate needs.
D. Mathyugarajah, a senior political activist and Kandy district organiser of Mr Premadasa’s Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB or United People’s Force), presented his views.
“In my experience, voters in the hilly areas do not always vote on the basis of ideology. They vote on the basis of issues that need immediate attention. In that sense, they vote for a promise made by an emissary of a national politician,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s local and provincial bodies are currently inactive – elections have been postponed indefinitely – bringing to the fore residents’ hyper-local, infrastructure-related concerns. Pointing to the worn-out path near her estate home near Kandy, R. Mangayarkarasi says: “I want someone to build a proper road on this route so we can bring vehicles in case of a medical emergency.”
A retired tea plantation worker, Ms. Mangayarkarasi now manages her home and takes care of her young grandson. In her view, an accessible road to reach her home is as important as better job security for her son, who works in a garage, and daughter-in-law, who works long hours in a garment factory.
Sri Lanka is set to hold a national election. Some voters are looking for provincial solutions as they grapple with a national economic crisis, while others are optimistic that any candidate will meet their demands. There are 38 presidential candidates running in this election, but many voters in the hill country say they don’t have many options to choose from.,
(*Name changed on request)